Violence Hits Home

The deaths of three UA professors at the hands of a student gunman on Monday shocked the campus and the community.

At a time when we're all especially sensitive--post-9/11, amid talk of war with Iraq, the distress of economic uncertainty, anxiety after the D.C.-area sniper--these tragic deaths hit home.

The victims--nursing faculty Cheryl McGaffic, Barbara Monroe and Robin Rogers--died doing their jobs. The killer, Robert S. Flores Jr., who turned a gun on himself after the murders, was a disgruntled student who apparently was failing in his coursework.

What caused Flores to resort to that kind of violence? There is --and will be--plenty of speculation about that.

We live in a society where guns are too easy to come by, where violent responses are too often tolerated, where people who obviously need help don't get it in time.

We don't need Halloween to remind us that these are scary times. But it might be useful to remember that the best antidote to fear is love.